


In the Dark

by K_Hanna_Korossy



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-30
Updated: 2016-01-30
Packaged: 2018-05-17 05:18:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5855587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/K_Hanna_Korossy/pseuds/K_Hanna_Korossy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are worse things than being trapped, in total darkness, with Teal'c.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Dark

 

First published in  _Door to Heaven 2_ (2004)

 

It was…dark. Midnight, can’t-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face dark that made ink look bright. That was the first thing Jack O’Neill noticed.

The second was that he was very uncomfortable. In considerable pain, as a matter of fact.

That combination couldn’t be good.

His instincts, slowed by nerves that were already busy telling his brain how much he hurt, finally kicked in. There was danger, his team was probably in trouble, and he was in charge. Time to snap out of it and figure out what was going on. And seeing as he was lying down for some reason, a tentative first step was getting up. Jack raised his head.

“Ow.” Bad plan. How you could be dizzy in pitch black, God only knew, but the inkiness was swimming around him. So, no marathons that day.

Something moved nearby.

Oh, this was so not turning out to be his day.

Should he call out, hoping it was one of his team, or stay still and silent in case it was an unfriendly who might want to, well, eat him or something? Jack was still debating when the decision was made for him.

“O’Neill.”

Jack blinked, but even as another rustle came from his left, there was nothing to see. “Teal’c?”

“It is I.”

Suddenly the blackness didn’t seem so dark and the churning in his stomach settled a little. That accounted for half the team already, and as calm as Teal’c sounded, Daniel and Carter were probably okay, too. Then again, Teal’c always sounded calm.

There was movement next to him. “I have not succeeded in finding our flashlights.”

“Uh, okay.” That would explain the darkness. Sort of. Jack tried to shake the remaining cobwebs from his head, but they were persistent suckers. Okay, he was lying in the dark on something hard and uneven, injured somehow, and Teal’c was there with him. It was a start, but not much of one. Jack sorted out the most important question to start with. “You wanna tell me what happened?”

“You do not remember?”

That meant he was supposed to. Terrific. Jack tried to move again, this time just a leg. It cooperated, but not without stretching what felt like a lot of pulled muscles and bruises. He groaned.

“Do not move,” Teal’c said sternly, and a large hand took hold of Jack’s left arm almost gingerly. “You have been injured.”

“No kidding,” Jack rasped. Still, he had to know, and so he stirred each limb in careful analysis. Legs, aching but functional. Left arm trapped under Teal’c’s hand but not feeling too bad. Right side—well, that wasn’t a good idea. His arm didn’t seem to want to work at all, and it throbbed from his fingertips up to his shoulders and down his ribs. It seemed he would be Doc Frasier's guest yet again. As soon as they got out of…wherever they were.

Which led him back to his original question.  

“I think now would be a good time to tell me where we are,” Jack managed to say without unclenching his teeth.

“In a cave on PR9-331,” came the all-too-literal answer.

PR9-331 didn’t mean a thing to him, but then, most of the planet designations didn’t. Jack had never been able to figure out how Daniel and Carter kept them all straight. But he should have remembered something of the planet or the briefing, something since…breakfast that morning? Fruit loops? That sounded right. There was just nothing after it in his memory. “And how did we get here?” Jack asked too patiently.

“We were exploring the area near the gate. There were no signs of human habitation, but Daniel Jackson thought perhaps the inhabitants of the planet had used the nearby caves for shelter. Daniel Jackson and Captain Carter were examining one such cave and you and I another when the earth began to shake and we were trapped.”

It took longer than usual to make sense of Teal’c’s explanation. Jack’s head was hurting, too, and come to think of it, it felt wet on the right side. The situation just kept getting better and better. But one thing stuck out immediately. “So you don’t know if Daniel and Sam are all right?”

Teal’c hesitated, Jack was sure of it, and then his usually impassive voice became a little less impassive “I do not.” Teal’c’s hand withdrew.

The reaction sharpened his mind more than the pain did. Jack strained fruitlessly to see the face next to him. “How ‘bout you, big guy?” He should have asked that earlier and he knew it—the pain was making him fuzzy, and fuzzy wouldn’t cut it.

“I am unhurt. I was not near the opening when it collapsed.”

One less thing to worry about, at least. Jack tried to cradle his bad arm to himself and just succeeded in making himself thoroughly nauseated. “Okay, then we’ll just have to get out of here and see about Daniel and Carter, won’t we? How bad are we trapped?”

“I cannot dig us out.” Very flat.

Also, very certain. Teal’c didn’t give up easily, so if he was saying it couldn’t be done, that probably meant a bulldozer would have a hard time getting them out.

Some days it just didn’t pay to get out of bed.

There was a flash of something, a shred of memory of Daniel babbling on about the caves and the information they might contain. Figured. Next time their resident linguist got so excited over exploring something dark and unstable, Jack was going to string him up by his toes.

If Daniel was still alive.

A whole other kind of darkness crept over him.

“Okay. So we’re trapped, no flashlights, right?” Darned if he didn’t almost sound cheerful.

“Indeed.”

“How ‘bout radios?”

“I have located one, but it is not functioning.”

“Supplies?”

“One pack. We have sufficient water and nourishment for three days.”

That was three days for one person, really, but Jack knew which of them Teal’c was thinking of. He mentally ran through the rest of the contents of a pack, but there wasn’t anything they could use either to dig themselves out or communicate with the outside world. The small amount of explosives they took on a standard mission would be in Carter’s gear. “How ‘bout the back of the cave?”

“There is no opening. I felt no stirring of air.”

Daniel’s cave people theory was looking worse and worse. “Have you tried banging on the walls?” Jack asked half-jokingly.

“I have. I do not believe I was heard, but I shall try again at half-hour intervals.”

Jack’s eyes widened. Time! His watch had a light on it—why didn’t he think of that sooner? With some effort, he raised his left arm so that it hovered somewhere in front of his face…and then what, push the button with his right hand, the one that wasn’t listening to him?

“O’Neill, are you well?” Teal’c had probably heard him moving.

“Teal’c, there’s a light on my watch. I can’t reach the button—think you can manage it?”

A light touch skated up his arm and fumbled with the watch. Even once the concept had been explained to him, Teal’c hadn’t wanted a timepiece of his own, but as far as Jack could tell, the Jaffa had an internal clock that was almost as good. He probably would try communicating again exactly on the half-hour. Which brought up another question.

“How long have we been in here?”

“Twenty-six minutes. You did not respond for the first sixteen.”

That was a long time to be out, but before Jack could think about it, bright green light flared to life a half-dozen inches from his nose. In the total blankness, it was almost blinding. He felt his mouth stretch into a smile as the dusty face of his teammate formed out of the darkness.

Teal’c was frowning at him. “You are bleeding.” And he let go of the watch stud, plunging them back into black night.

Jack fought back a sudden sense of suffocation. He was _not_ going to give in to this. Yeah, since Iraq he’d had an irrational, private fear of the dark and of closed spaces, and this place was pushing all his buttons. So what? That wouldn’t get them out of there or save Daniel and Sam, who could be worse off than they were. He had plenty of air to breathe. For now. It just didn’t feel like it.

Teal’c had been rummaging in something while Jack had been tussling with his demons, and now he pressed something against Jack’s temple. Hard.

It felt like his skull was going to crack, and Jack tried to roll his head away, muttering a few choice curses, including an oldie but a goodie Katherine had taught him. Well, he’d wanted something to take his mind off the dark.

“It will pass, O’Neill.” Strange, Teal’c sounded almost soothing. “Do not think of it.”

Yeah, right. Automatic tears of pain pooled in the corners of his eyes and trickled down his face. At least Teal’c couldn’t see that. But half his team was in trouble and could be dead, the pain was more than a little distracting, his heart was still pounding from his earlier little freak-out, and there was no escape in sight. The only way he knew not to think about it was to let himself drift, disconnect from what was happening, but Jack couldn’t do that if his team was counting on him. Okay, so hopefully Sam and Daniel were just fine and had already figured out some brilliant way to dig them out, but that still left Teal’c trapped there with him. It didn’t matter if he was in better shape than Jack was—wasn’t he always?—and probably had a better chance on his own. The Jaffa was still a member of his team, and Jack didn’t abandon his people.

Even the ones that maybe were already dead. There was that other possibility, too, the one he didn’t like to think about but that the realist in him couldn’t ignore. Head injury or no, he wasn’t forgetting any of his kids.

He just wasn’t able to do very much to help any of them. And that was the most frightening, painful feeling of all.

At least Teal’c had given up trying to break his head in and was now tearing off a strip of adhesive and taping the bandage into place. Jack followed his movements by ear, trying hard to hear every sound. That was the only sense that seemed to still be working normally. He could hear Teal’c put the medical supplies away, then felt him grope for the watch again. Even as he opened his mouth to protest, his watch was pulled free, and a moment later the green light shone in his face again. Teal’c studied him again for a moment, then the slightest smile curved his face.

“I believe you will survive, O’Neill.”

Oh, Lord, a joke. If Teal’c thought he needed lightening up, he really had to be a mess. And yet Jack found himself sputtering a laugh in response. It hurt, but it was worth it.

The large hand lifted his left arm gently, and wrapped his fingers around the watch. Teal’c was letting him control the light, and Jack sobered. It did diminish the whispering fear, but how had the Jaffa known? Was he that—

The bolt of agony hit so suddenly, Jack choked out a gasp before he clamped his teeth against it. The right side of his chest suddenly felt like it was collapsing, sending nerves screaming and spasming his body. He barely heard Teal’c’s rising voice nor felt the hands that held him down, just fought not to be overwhelmed and swept off with the force of the pain.

It eased off again just as quickly, and Jack could breathe again in short, panting gasps. Blood was in his mouth and he spat it out, but new blood welled in its place where he’d bit his tongue. He’d ended up on his left side somehow, halfway into a fetal curve, and his left hand was clamped painfully around something large and solid. Teal’c’s hand.

Jack tried for a laugh and managed a shaky exhalation. “That was…fun,” he muttered.

“Indeed.” If he could have seen the Jaffa’s face, he knew exactly what expression it would show, one eyebrow raised in flat disbelief.

So, something was messed up inside, bleeding or deflating or doing something else bad for his health. Jack had figured as much from the way his side hurt, so that little confirmation had been unnecessary. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t been in this position before, most recently with Carter up in Antarctica. At least this time it was warmer, although Teal’c wasn’t quite as charming company as Carter. And Hammond knew where they were this time, too. As soon as they missed their check-in, SG-3 would be on the way to see what the problem was. Whether he and Teal’c had that much time or not, well, that was another matter.

But there was no use crying over that one just yet, or letting Teal’c know how bad things were, if the big guy hadn’t already guessed. Jack had already peeled his fingers off the Jaffa’s mangled hand, but it had merely moved to his shoulder in either support or monitoring, Jack wasn’t sure. At any rate, he knew Teal’c was worried about him. Should probably take his mind off it somehow. The distraction wouldn’t hurt Jack, either.

“So, Teal’c. Do they have any sports on Chulak?”

 

At least in Antarctica there had been light. Jack would have been willing to trade the warmth of the cave for a little bit of sunlight, or, heck, even the government-issue desk lamp in his office. Not that it would have been much of a trade; he’d already started to shiver with the beginnings of shock. Teal’c’s jacket tucked in around him only helped take the edge off the chill that came from inside him.

But Teal’c’s deep voice next to him ran on in a steady, warm stream, and that somehow helped. Not being alone helped. Not being alone with someone you didn’t have to be in charge of was a relief. Teal’c had probably commanded more men than Jack ever would and, ironically, that was more obvious now in the strength of his voice and his solid presence than in all the times he’d proven himself an asset on missions. Jack really would have to talk to Hammond about giving the guy a raise. When they got out of there, that was.

The Jaffa was going on now about some game called Sham-something. Or rather, not just a game but a “competition to exercise and train future warriors for Apophis.” The words wouldn’t have mattered so much as just the fact that he was talking, but Jack found himself intrigued.

Okay, so the set of rules would rivaled any NFL handbook. Jack’s mind wandered during some of it despite himself, and two more of those attacks hadn’t helped his concentration any, either. But Teal’c just waited out each one with him and then kept going, and details such as injured players continuing to play and the losers being publicly shunned for three days couldn’t help but catch Jack’s interest. Good sportsman, that Apophis.

“So, no hockey?” Jack asked when the lengthy explanation finally ended. His tongue felt a little thick, slurring the words slightly, and he made a face.

Teal’c either didn’t notice or was doing him the favor of ignoring it. “There is no ice on Chulak,” he said.

“Isn’t ‘n Florida, either. Never stopped the Ducks. Unfortunately.”

Another pause. “Waterfowl also play ‘hockey’?”

The question was too polite—Teal’c was pulling his leg again. Jack snorted. “The Ducks are a team. You’d know that if you watched more hockey, Teal’c.”

Teal’c didn’t seem to want to answer that one. In the silence, Jack flicked the watch light on briefly—just checking—and winced to see the dark, knowing look in Teal’c’s eyes that was visible even in the dim light. Jack’s act wasn’t fooling either of them. He let the light go out and tried to find some sort of words to make it all better.

Strangely enough, he couldn’t.

Teal’c, unusually for the big guy, was the one to take up the conversation “O’Neill. I wish to know more about this…Christmas.”

It took him a moment to switch gears. Christmas? Well, they’d had the party and the service and the gifts a few months before—Jack had had an interesting time explaining what elephants had to do with giving gifts, let alone white ones—and he could have sworn he heard Daniel rambling on at some point about some of the origins and customs to the Jaffa. Teal’c hadn’t exactly entered into the activities in full spirit; his idea of a gift had been a wrapped piece of pumpkin pie from the commissary. But he’d at least seemed to understand. Was this just another stab at distraction?

Or maybe the darkness was getting to Teal’c, too.

Jack tried to find his tongue. It wasn’t easy. “Whaddaya want to know?”

“Daniel Jackson has shared with me the religious background of this holiday, but there are many who are not of that religion and yet for whom it is of great significance. It appears to be of far greater importance than a single day of religious celebration.”

He was lying on his back in a pitch-black cave, bleeding and slipping into shock, and Teal’c wanted to know about Christmas. Even weirder, Jack didn’t find that odd at all. “Well…you’re right, Teal’c, Christmas isn’t just about a religious celebration, though that’s an important part.” He was tripping over the longer words, slurring them, and concentrated on at least sounding coherent. Teal’c wasn’t easy to fool. “But Christmas… it’s supposed to be about spending some time with your family, giving gifts, love-joy-peace and all that. People act different—get into the spirit of things. Unless you’re shopping on Christmas Eve—then it’s every man for himself.”

“I have heard of this spirit,” Teal’c said thoughtfully. “The Tauri scribe Dickens wrote of three such beings.”

Jack sputtered. “Dickens? Teal’c, the guy was writing about _ghosts_. And that’s just a story. I’m talking about the Christmas sp—”

Another attack again, worse than those before. Jack’s vision went from black to red and blood filled his mouth. His chest was being crushed by a heavy weight, and his arm and shoulder screamed at the movement. He might have, too, for all he knew.

Gradually, too gradually, gravity started working for instead of against him, and Jack was able to cough the liquid from his mouth and throat. The pressure on his side eased, and air began to infiltrate his lungs again. The fire abated to a lingering burn, and the red haze changed to…green?

Jack found himself on his side again, more or less, curled up and leaning against Teal’c’s arm. His watch glowed cheerfully in the Jaffa’s other hand, both reassuring and frightening as it revealed the pool of blood in front of him. Too much to be from a bitten tongue this time. With the retching gone, the Jaffa slowly laid him back down, discretely away from the blood.

The watch was folded back into his left hand, and Teal’c’s coat drawn over him again . The lethargy it brought wasn’t just from the warmth, Jack knew. He was starting to slip away. It was a familiar feeling.

“Don’ suppose…c’n have some of that water now?” he whispered. His lips felt a little numb.

“I do not believe that would be wise.” He’d never heard Teal’c sound so apologetic.

Because of him—he hated that. “Hey…” Jack tried to put some strength in his voice. “’S okay. ‘d just have to go then.”

“I do not believe you would get far in your current condition, O’Neill.”

Another joke. Jack flashed back to being pinned against the wall of the gateroom, slowly being taken over by the collective organism from the globe they’d brought home. And Teal’c staying worriedly at his side, making a joke to distract him. Maybe the Jaffa was more human than he thought.

Jack smiled, turning his head slightly so he was looking up at his friend. “Ha, ha,” he said carefully. “Anyone ever tell you…you’re a bundle of laughs?”

He could almost feel Teal’c cock his head. “No.”

“Well…consider it done. And…I ‘ppreciate it.”

“You are welcome.”

The lack of visual cues—and they were there once you got to know the guy—forced Jack to pay attention to the aural ones. And even with his mind only working at half speed, he knew Teal’c understood what he was saying and was expressing the same. You’ve been a good friend. And good-bye.

At least he’d had a chance to say it. There was a pang at the thought of not having had the same opportunity with Daniel and Carter, but he hoped they knew. Besides, both of them tended to get a lot more emotional than Teal’c. Maybe it was better this way. There was no reason to think their cave had collapsed, so they’d be fine. Though it didn’t matter where he was going, he’d miss them.

With that out of the way, Jack grinned weakly into the darkness. “’thing good on TV lately?”

  

Television somehow led to families, and sons and wives. With the thought of seeing Charlie again soon, the topic didn’t hurt as much as it once had, or maybe he’d changed some, too, in the last year. Seeing the crystal Charlie had made him deal with some of that, with some help from Daniel.

Time was measured only by Teal’c’s periodically rising to bang on the rock wall and call out. There was never any response. Jack no longer expected there to be.

The pain got worse, the breathless stabs more frequent. The taste of blood was always in his mouth now and it was hard to breathe or put thoughts together, let alone words. Teal’c had taken over all the talking, and the bits Jack understood were important. The Jaffa had had no real friends besides Bra’tac, and no family but that of blood. The closeness of SG-1 had thrown him and taken getting used to, but they were his blood now. Jack thought he agreed, and maybe that was more than he would have admitted in other times, but it didn’t seem to matter much anymore. Not when Teal’c was cleaning his blood off his face and holding him while he groaned and threatened to break apart.

Somewhere along the line, dying had stopped being a solitary occupation. He’d always expected to meet his end on foreign soil, alone, unmourned. But Carter had been there with him on Antarctica, Teal’c at his side while he’d fought for his life in the gateroom, Daniel refusing to leave him while the knowledge of the Ancients took over his mind, all three of them calling every day as he’d faded away on Argos, and marching with him into that suicide mission on Apophis’s ship. And Teal’c here now. His hands, surprisingly warm and gentle, and his low, even voice were all that Jack was aware of anymore, but it was enough. Even the dark had stopped bothering him—those Christmas platitudes finally meant something again, and it was enough.

As he started slipping away for the last time, Jack could almost hear the faint sound of sliding and scraping from the pile of rocks at the mouth of the cave, Assuming he wasn’t hallucinating—and that was a big jump—it would be too late for him, but at least Teal’c would be going back to his family.

He sank into the darkness without regret.

 

Jack grumbled under his breath as he shuffled down the hallway of the SGC. Bad enough it was his first day out from under Frasier’s eagle eye and that just walking back to his room already had him worn out and sweating, now he couldn’t find Teal’c. The Jaffa wasn’t in his room or in the gym, and if he wasn’t in the commissary, either, Jack wouldn’t have the energy to look anywhere else. In fact, he wasn’t even sure he’d be able to get back to his own room. Oh well, at least the commissary wasn’t a bad place to be marooned. At least he could have some real food instead of that mush Frasier made him eat, and it was brightly lit. Funny how much you took for granted until you lost it.

He turned the corner at turtle-speed and stopped gratefully just inside the commissary doors to catch his breath, glancing around the room.

There. Finally.

Finding his goal gave him a new, if brief, burst of strength, and Jack managed to ease himself into the chair opposite Teal’c’s instead of just collapsing and pulling at healing stitches. Teal’c’s eyebrows rose at his arrival, the Jaffa rising to offer aid, which he loftily waved away. It only hurt a little bit. Soon, Frasier had promised him, he’d have the stamina of an eighty-year-old. Promises, promises.

“I am glad to see you looking so well, O’Neill,” Teal’c said with a small smile.

He knew exactly how well he looked, but then it was probably better than he’d looked in the cave. Bunch of busted ribs, a punctured lung, and a compressed nerve would do that to you, as Frasier had reminded him several times those last few days. Go figure. “Not as glad as I am to be out of Doc Frasier’s hands. I think she’s been taking lessons from MacKenzie on bedside manner.”

“Doctor Frasier has expressed similar feelings toward you.”

It didn’t look like Teal’c was kidding this time. Jack’s eyes widened, then narrowed dangerously. “Like what?”

“I am not at liberty to say.”

Darned if the Jaffa wasn’t being smug. “That’s an order, Teal’c,” Jack said as sternly as he could.

“You are not yet restored to duty, O’Neill,” Teal’c countered calmly.

“Yeah, well…” Okay, so he had him there. Jack scowled at him briefly, then remembered why he’d come. With a flourish, he pulled the present out from the folds of the sling his right arm rested in, and placed it on the table in front of Teal’c. “Almost forgot. This if for you.”

Teal’c’s eyebrows rose again. “For what occasion?”

Jack shrugged one-shouldered, wincing. “Call it a late Christmas gift.”

“I have already received—”

“Just open the gift, Teal’c,” Jack growled.

Teal’c tilted his head and silently obeyed, abandoning his typically overflowing tray—the blueberry pie made Jack’s mouth water—to carefully unwrap the small, gaily packaged cube. He’d probably learned how to open gifts from Daniel, Jack thought with exasperation, teasing the edge of the tape up and pulling it off carefully so that the paper could be reused, as if that were any fun. On the other hand, it gave Jack more time to rest his aching and tired self, and so he stomped down his impatience and stoically watched the unwrapping.

Finally, the paper fell away to reveal the contents. Teal’c’s eyebrows rose again, and he looked up at Jack.

“It’s a watch,” Jack said, probably unnecessarily. The cube was clear, its contents obvious. “I know you said you didn’t want one, but c’mon, everybody’s got one—” except maybe Daniel, who was always late, “—and this one has a light and, well, I figured you never know when it’ll come in handy.” Okay, so it was a little lame, but it’d seemed like a good idea when he’d been laid up in the infirmary, and Daniel had been very willing to go pick it up for him. Probably figured he owed Jack something for him and Sam coming out of the whole adventure without a scratch, while Jack had spent over a week in the infirmary. At least Daniel chose well. Then again, who ever knew what appealed to Teal’c? Jack watched the impassive face hopefully.

Teal’c finally looked up from his examination of the watch, gaze unusually solemn. “I am honored, O’Neill.”

He’d have squirmed if it wouldn’t have been too painful. “Yeah, well, you earned it. And I just wanted to say…thanks.” They’d done this in the cave already, but he’d been half out of it then and hadn’t even realized just how much he was thanking the man for. Now he meant it whole-heartedly, even the parts wild horses couldn’t drag out of him.

Teal’c smiled slightly, knowingly, and only inclined his head. He knew. And Jack grinned back, a little self-conscious but a lot relieved.

He was finally out of the darkness.

Which left only one more pressing issue. Jack sobered, and Teal’c grew solemn in response, waiting.

“So…can I have your pie?”

 The End


End file.
